Yes or No . . . .

So, they speak English in Singapore.  It used to be a British colony so it is a more formalized English.  On the MRT (subway), the message says "Mind the gap."  The girls look at me for a translation and I tell them it means don't forget to pay attention and not to get stuck in the small crack between the subway and the station platform when entering and exiting.  They shake their head in agreement, they understand my translation. 

I am getting into a little routine and feeling good about our transition until I realize that most of the time when someone local is talking to me, I am not understanding some of the information.  It is English but with the strong accent, it is difficult for me to understand.  You can only ask someone to repeat something so often before you become a nuisance.  I tell M this last night and he laughs and says that he says "no" when he doesn't understand and then he figures out what he is missing.  I, on the other hand, have taken a more random approach of sprinkling my answers with random "yes" or "no" depending on what I am feeling.  Guess this could get me into trouble!  We'll see.  Good thing the people of Singapore are nice and kind to Americans.

Cold Storage  is one of the grocery stores and we go there almost every day. With the heat and the small fridge etc. you need to go every day or two.   It is a quick walk to the store and we carry the items back.  The store looks similar to our grocery stores however, most things are in much smaller quantities.  They are located in nice shopping malls, which is a little funny. 

So yesterday when we are at Cold Storage, the checkout lady hands the girls each what looks like a ball in a plastic bag.  It has a cute panda on it.  The women tells us what it is.  The girls look to me for translation and I tell them she has given them hacki-sack balls (spelling?) to kick around.  We thank her and leave.  She had a thankful but little confused look on her face.  When they get home, they open the packages and they are actually heavy plastic carrying bags.  The women was apparently saying "handi-sack" not hacki-sack.  I am sure she was wondering why we were going to kick these around.  Who knew?

BTW, I am going to keep track of how many times we have McD's while we are here.  Yesterday was #2 for the record (Mark ate in one at the Tokyo airport but the rest of us didn't so I am not counting that one.)  While at lunch at McD on trip number 2, the girls were discussing the culture differences between the McD's here and in the States.  "Mom, the McChicken sandwich is a different chicken patty than at home."  "Mom, there are no salads or Big Mac's on the menu."  "Mom, the drinks are small and there are no free refills."  "Mom, they don't have lemonade on the menu." Ok, here's the good news, at least they are noticing that there are differences .  Hopefully, by the end of this trip we will be able to compare some other things.  Too funny.  (The girls are struggling with the food when we go out so they need a little more comfort food now. :)

Tie Dye will be posting some new stuff so make sure to check her page out on the blog later.    We haven't been home much so hopefully she will be on today to update. 

I am posting a new question of the week so make sure you select your answer.  Answer to last question was Keylime threw up in our car while driving around town about an hour before we left for the airport.  At least she didn't get motion sick the whole 19 hours in flight.   

Here is a picture of the girls at the subway station waiting for a train.